Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Indian Lobster-cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Remove the tails from the lobsters and slice them into ⅓ inch thick pieces.
Dip the lobster slices into beaten egg, then coat them with seasoned bread crumbs.
Press the crumbs onto the lobster with a knife and repeat the egg and crumb process.
Fry the coated lobster pieces in butter until light brown.
Arrange the fried cutlets in a chain on a hot dish.
Prepare a sauce with claw meat heated in melted butter, adding essence of anchovies, chili vinegar, salt, and mace.
Serve the sauce in the center of the cutlets or in a separate tureen.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, egg, bread, pepper, nutmeg, butter, meat):
- Parsleyfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, egg, bread, pepper, nutmeg, butter, meat. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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